31,000 people in northern German city of Hannover are evacuated after WWII bomb is found

BERLIN – Some 31,000 residents in the northern German city of Hannover are being forced to temporarily evacuate their homes after construction crews found an unexploded 250-kilogram (550-pound) bomb underneath a former high school.

The bomb was discovered Tuesday afternoon during work tearing down the former school building. Experts decided, based upon its condition, it needed to be immediately defused and removed, so surrounding residents had to be evacuated as a precaution, the dpa news agency reported.

Even 70 years after the end of World War II, unexploded bombs are still found relatively frequently in Germany, generally during construction in major cities.

Hannover was a regular target for Allied bombers during the war. In one raid in 1943 alone, some 261,000 bombs were dropped on the city.